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Bletchley Park Personnel Master List Notes

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Bletchley Park Personnel Master List Notes BP War: Personnel – Master List BPWN08071702 Notes on the Master List: Index Page of Notes Contents Column No. in List 1 Overleaf from 2 Index to Notes All Columns 1 Overleaf from 2 Sources 7 2 Overleaf from 1 Surnames, 1 2 Overleaf from 1 Initials, 2 2 Overleaf from 1 Married Names 3 2 Overleaf from 1 Service Ranks, Civilian Grades 4 3 Overleaf from 4 Section / Location Introduction 5 3 Overleaf from 4 External Geographical Locations 5, 6 4 Overleaf from 3 Abbreviations 5, 6 5, 6 Both sides Huts 5, 6 6 Overleaf from 5 Blocks 5, 6 7. Map of Bletchley Park, Huts & Blocks 5, 6 Sources, Column 7 of List of Names This Master-List has been compiled by combining the material from a number of War-time contemporary lists, now in the National Archives, together with material gathered in the BP Archives, in particular the Historical Survey Forms: 1: Summer, 1939. Existing GC&CS staff who came to BP in July 1939, & the War Reserve Staff who joined at the outbreak of war in September 1939. (HW3/11; HW14/1; HW14/6, HW50/62; HW64/45) 2: December, 1940. Complete list of BP staff at that date, compiled by the Director’s Office. (HW19/9) 3A: October, 1942. List of Air Section staff at that date, compiled by Air Section directorate. (HW14/57) 3N: 1944 & 1945. List of Naval Section, compiled from duties lists, telephone directories, etc. (HW3/28) 4: 1939 – 1945, Civilian List (All grades down to and including Temporary Assistants). This immediate post- war list was probably intended to be comprehensive & definitive, except that it excluded staff who had continued on to work at GCHQ after the end of the war. (HW14/156) 5: 1939 -1945, Service Lists (The main officer working grade; Navy: Lieut.; Army: Captain; Air-Force: Fl/Lieut.; and the equivalent female Service grades). As with List 4, these three Service lists are comprehensive, except that they exclude officers who had continued on at GCHQ. (HW3/82) 6: Publications, names to be found in the extensive publications about the work of BP. 7: Historical Survey Forms, completed by the veterans and their relatives on visits to the Park in recent years. 9: BP Archive Documents, identified by a serial number in the index held in the BP Archives. 10: ‘Director’s Orders’ & Foreign Office Staff documents held in the BP Archives. 11: Naval Section documents, as 3N above, but from a more extensive set of documents in the BP Archives. 12: ‘Key Personalities’, being notes on individuals at BP, drawn up by archivists from war-time papers & the published literature. 14: Miscellaneous Documents about BP, held in the BP archives 15: Mark Baldwin; Documents, obituaries, etc, available from M. & M. Baldwin of Cleobury Mortimer 16: Tony Sale; Data collected from Veterans & Visitors over many years by Margaret & Tony Sale Sources 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 11 are to be found in the appropriate file in the National Archives (HW,,/..), with copies held in the BP Archives. Sources 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 14 are to be found in the BP Archives, with more detailed reference numbers being available there to identify the particular source document. In total some 8,700 names appear in this list. We need your help to find the names of people who were at BP in war-time but whose names do not appear in this list, and for corrections to the entries as they appear here. See Overleaf 1 BPWN08071703 BP War: Personnel – Master List Names, Service/ Civilian Ranks or Grades, Columns 1- 4 Surname, Column 1. This the name used at BP, normally the born name (née) for both men and women, but sometimes a married name for a woman. For a woman who was known at BP by her maiden name, and then after marriage with a new surname at BP, both names may be entered under the appropriate first letter. Initials, Column 2. The contemporary war-time staff lists virtually always list initials, rarely the forenames, so any forenames listed here derive very largely from post-war sources like the Historical Survey Forms. Married Name, Column 3. These give the married name of the particular women when known, normally after marriage in the post-war years. Of course, lack of a listed married name here is certainly no proof that she did not marry in the post-war years. Service Ranks, Column 4. Grades and ranks are usually given here as recorded in the Source document. Sometimes more than one Rank for Service staff is given, when the individual was promoted during his/her time at BP. The rank that is normally given is that by which the individual would be remembered at BP, for example in the situation where the junior rank is used because the higher rank was received near the end of service at BP. Occasionally an individual received several promotions, in which case the range of ranks, from most junior to most senior, is given. There seems to be considerable confusion about the ranks, and the short- style abbreviations, of the women’s services, even in war-time contemporary documents. Civilian Grades, Column 4. Grades of the civilians are usually given with the highest grade achieved. The common grade for the ‘graduate’ personnel was T.J.A.O., with most achieving promotion to T.S.A.O. after a few years of service. Grades were not a matter of much importance at BP, and were only mentioned very rarely in day-to-day activities. Unfortunately there is considerable confusion in the use of Miss or Mrs, as entries derived from the Historical Survey Forms tend to classify a person who became married after the war as Mrs, when she should be entered as Miss when listed herein under her maiden name at BP. The following Grade abbreviations are used in the List: Grade Interpretation T.J. A. O. Temporary Junior Assistant Officer. T.J.A.O. was the graduate, or equivalent, entry grade, also used for some undergraduates, etc. Almost all war-time code-breakers started in this grade. T. S. A. O. Temporary Senior Assistant Officer. T.J.A.O.s became T.S.A.O.s after a few years. A very few senior people in pre-war life entered as T.S.A.O.s. T J A. Presumably, this is this the same as T.J.A.O.? T. S. A. Presumably, this is the same as T.S.A.O.s? T. J. A. O. The qualifier seems to indicate special skills of the individual. All the normal codebreakers (D) seem to be in category (D), with certain communications staff in category (C), and certain electronic or radio engineers in category (E). T. A. Temporary Assistant? The grade for non-graduate, non-manual grades, such as typists, secretaries, form-fillers, etc. T. J. S. O. Temporary Junior Scientific Officer? Very occasionally this appears. The new grade of S.O., Scientific Officer, was introduced at the end of the war, rising to S.S.O. (Senior Scientific Officer), and then to P.S.O. (Principle Scientific Officer). C.III. to These seem to be grades employed by the Foreign Office, S.I. S., (as distinct from GC&CS). C.VI. They seem to be grades for radio operators, or for people doing jobs much like T.J.A.O.s, but for those employed by the S. I. S. Linguist Grade used for graduate, or equivalent, translators. Junior Could it be a junior T.A. in permanent (i.e. pre-war) employment? Assistant Senior Very rare; presumably a senior J.A.? Assistant Assistant Standard Civil service grade held, at least pre-war, by senior staff such as Directors of Secretary Establishments. (Post-war it became far less elevated!) A. III ? It seems to be a senior F.O. grade. E(Senior) Is this a mistake for TSAO (E)? Or is it a F.O. grade for an Electronics specialist? 2 £800 These are for really exceptional, very senior individuals who are paid at individually agreed rates. BPWN08071704 BP War: Personnel - Master list Section / Location, Column 5 of the List This Column entry lists, in much abbreviated form, the Sections or teams in which the individual worked, together with their locations on site at BP. The material is usually reproduced just as it appears in the Source list, unfortunately often being far from clear. For security reasons in the early days at BP, it was the practise to name a team after the building in which they worked, that name continuing to be used to identify the team even when they had moved to a new location. So in the early days the word ‘Hut’ identifies both the team and the location, but when the word ‘Block’ is used it is only a location. The term Block D(6) means work in Block D in the team known as ‘Hut 6’ (since that was where that team was first located before they moved to the Block). Sometimes a direct statement of the team is given, such as e.g. ‘Naval Section’ or ‘N.S.’ in which the individual worked. Sometimes the name of the team leader is given, e.g. ‘Twinn’, who was head of ISK, for whom that individual worked. The term ‘N.S VIJ(G)’ means Naval Section (or in the last months it became ‘Naval Wing’), sub-section VI Japanese, with the (G) referring to the team in that sub-section. The entries are supposed to be from the first job in chronological order through to the last at, or shortly after, the end of the war, so that the first entry should be the first in which that individual worked, the last entry the last in which he/she worked on the GC&CS pay-roll.
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